Reut Shabtai with her husband.
Kuma and The Battle That Will Never End
BY INBAR GABAY ZADA
When the war was still raging, Am Yisrael ensured that no Jew stood alone. In those early months, the widows of Swords of Iron were surrounded – by family, neighbors, volunteers, and a nation united by shock and resolve. During shiva and throughout the first year, support came instinctively. People showed up. Systems mobilized. Care was immediate and visible.
Then the nature of the fighting shifted. Israel began to settle into what Israelis call “shigrat milchama” – a new routine shaped by ongoing tension, loss, and uncertainty. The global Jewish world adjusted to this wartime rhythm. Life continued. Attention shifted, as it must, toward what comes next. But the widows did not enter this new routine. For them, the battle did not transition into “routine.” It became quieter – and therefore easier to miss. An invisible battle, fought not on front lines but in living rooms and kitchens, over bank statements and bureaucracy, in the weight of decisions once shared and now carried alone. Alongside grief, a new fear began to surface – that they would be forgotten. This fear is voiced again and again by the widows themselves. And so Kuma’s work is guided by a simple commitment: to remain at their side – now, and as their lives continue to unfold.
Reut Shabtai lives in Jerusalem’s Kiryat Moshe. She is an occupational therapist and the mother of three daughters. Her husband, Gai, was wounded in Lebanon. He survived the initial injury – and passed away a week later from his wounds. The days immediately after his death were filled with people. Family members sat close. Friends checked in constantly. There was comfort in not being alone – in being held by a community that knew how to show up in moments of shock. And then, slowly, things changed. “When the day ends,” Reut says, “I know that there is no one to share my day with.”
What followed was not one dramatic moment, but many quiet ones – mornings that still needed structure, decisions that now had to be made without a partner to share the weight. “I worry about our financial future,” she explains. “I worry about how I will raise the girls alone.” These worries surface in ordinary moments – when a bill arrives, when a form is unclear, when a child needs something extra and there is no capacity left to carry more. This is the invisible battle: steady, exhausting, and largely unseen. “I can’t do it alone,” Reut says. “That’s why I need Kuma.”
Kuma did not arrive with dramatic gestures or promises. It arrived with steadiness – through a professional staff member who sat with Reut, helped her navigate complex bureaucratic systems, safeguarded her benefits and entitlements, and thought with her not only about this month, but about what stability could look like over time. “I still carry the responsibility,” she says. “But Kuma takes the weight off my shoulders. They take away that constant pressure – of how will I raise my girls alone.”
This is the daily reality Shlomit Peretz knows well. Shlomit, who manages Kuma, brings to this work a depth that cannot be taught. Many readers will recognize her name – and her story. She is herself a war widow; her husband, Eliraz Peretz, was killed in combat 15 years ago. When she speaks with widows, it is not only as a program director, but as someone who has walked this road – who understands the questions that surface long after the crowds disperse: Where does strength come from now? What does rebuilding actually look like? “Again and again,” she says, “we talk about strength – how we find it, how we hold onto it, and how we learn to draw on it differently over time.”
Each widow Kuma serves is accompanied through a structured framework: assessing immediate needs, mapping financial and bureaucratic realities, securing entitlements, providing targeted financial assistance, and offering ongoing guidance as life changes. “Our goal,” Shlomit says, “is for every woman to know that she has someone to turn to – for whatever she needs. And so often they tell us: One day, when we are strong enough, we hope to help other women the way we were helped.”
Kuma is an initiative of the Sulamot organization, founded by Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon, and made possible through partnerships in Israel and across the Jewish world, including the World Mizrachi movement and Mizrachi Canada. Today, Kuma supports 234 widows across Israel, with the clear goal of reaching all 354 Swords of Iron widows, ensuring that no family is left without support. “On Tu BiShvat, we celebrate growth that happens beneath the surface – unseen, sustained long after the storm has passed,” explains Rav Rimon. “The battle these women face continues in that often invisible space. Our responsibility is to tend those roots patiently and faithfully, so that strength can grow where loss once stood. In this way, those who sacrificed their own family life for Am Yisrael are themselves held by Am Yisrael.”
This is not charity. It is responsibility – carried together.
To support Sulamot’s Kuma program and stand with Israel’s widows, please contact: inbar@sulamot.org. Donations are tax-deductible.
Inbar Gabay Zada is Director of Development at Sulamot.